


Four of Us

by dbawsol



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Anxiety, Autistic Logic | Logan Sanders, Depression, Fluff and Angst, He's not bad, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Self-Insert, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Virgil has Two Moms, Writing on Skin, gotta get through the rough before we get to the happy, he isn't deceit he's dimitri so, just a heads up, not huge characters tho dw, some time, we'll get to the fluff y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-07-19 00:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19964881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbawsol/pseuds/dbawsol
Summary: What happens when you have three soulmates instead of one?Patton, Virgil, Roman, and Logan must go through this slippery slope of harassment and love in a world where writing on your skin makes it appear on your soulmate's.**DISCONTINUED DUE TO THE FACT THAT I HAVE TRAUMA**





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multi-chapter fic that I have a plan for! It’s also my first Sanders Sides fic, so I’m super excited! I basically made this cause I wanted a soulmate & highschool AU fic that didn’t focus on Virgil for angst! Also I love the human AU idea that Virgil has two moms, so here this is! 
> 
> Shoutout to my QPP Jaymes for beta reading this! I don't have a specific calendar for when I will post chapters, I'll probably just post them as I write them. That being said, I already have chapter 2 written ahead of time and I'm going to start working on chapter 3 when I can.
> 
> Also, do note: I'm writing this in the summer, so when school starts up, I may not update as quickly.
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: Homophobia, Polyphobia (if that's the correct term), toxic masculinity

Virgil flinches, feeling a little tickle on the back of his wrist. He pulls back the hoodie sleeve to reveal a little light blue heart being drawn. Then another one. He raises his hand.

“Mrs. Borne!” he calls out. The woman looks up from her desk. It was time for the kids to do their work, which was coloring a picture of a flower. He looks down again and there is a small word written next to the heart. _Hi!_ It reads, a curly word. The ‘I’ and exclamation point, dotted with hearts. 

“What is it, Virgil?” She asks, looking up from the paper she had been writing on.

“There’s pen on my hand and I didn’t put it there!”

Mrs. Borne quickly stands up, her brown hair swishing around her shoulders. She walks over and takes a look. She breaks out into a huge smile, turning to address the class. “Class, has anyone heard about soulmates yet?”Most of the students raise their hands, Virgil being one. She looks back down at Virgil for a second before looking back up. “To those of you that _do_ know, Virgil just got his first message from his soulmate! That means his soulmate must already be 7!” 

Virgil touches the small heart and message on his wrist. He blushes, not used to being the center of this much attention. Kids get out of their seats to come take a look. Virgil hunches over a bit, covering his wrist. This message is supposed to be for him, not anyone else! The teacher notices this and waves her hands. “Now now everyone, let Virgil be! He may not want to share anything about his soulmate just yet!”

She gives Virgil another big smile before walking back to her desk. “Back to work, everyone! Only an hour until we have to start packing up!”

Virgil puts his wrist under the table, shielding it from the girl sitting next to him. He grabs a purple marker from the table and discreetly writes.

_Hi_

It doesn’t feel like enough.

He draws a little cloud next to it. His teachers always laugh. It’s like a little cloud of trouble follows him around, they said the day he fell off the monkey bars, losing his tooth and getting blood all over the woodchips. He scared a bunch of kids that day, but just laughed about it.

Then a different color appears.

A dark blue. 

It’s not the person from before. It’s a smaller, neater handwriting.

_Hello. There seems to be 3 of us, is that correct?_

Virgil only knows that word from a TV show his moms watch that he sometimes listens to.

Light blue speaks again. _Well, it looks like it!_

Virgil feels a pit in his stomach. His moms have never mentioned anything like this before. 

There’s a red underneath that, as bright as the blood on the playground that day. It’s small, and quick, and looks rushed. There’s a smudge, and soon it’s gone. It looks like the rest starts getting washed off after that, but that small red number is stuck in Virgil’s head.

_4._

  
-

This was not good. Not good at _all._ Roman scrubs and scrubs, letting out a sigh of relief at how easily the colors wash out of his skin with the porta potty hand sanitizer. Thank goodness. If coach saw that, Roman would be dead before he could blink. He sighs, flinching at the yelling outside the door. 

“C’mon sport, hurry up! Your mother’s cooking dinner, it should be ready when we get home! We can’t just let it get cold!” Roman’s father calls. Roman sighs, slipping the red pen back into his jeans. He is _so_ lucky he managed to get in here _and_ have a pen on him. He just hopes his soulmates will understand that he needed to wash everything off.

He comes out of the door, screaming when he gets suddenly picked up. His father laughs. “Oh, silly, it’s just me, calm down! You sound like a girl!” He laughs.

Roman sighs. He just wants to get home and be able to write to the people who he’s destined to love.  


-

Logan opens his book back open, wincing at the loud screaming of the other kids on the bus. Questions run through his mind. _Why were there three others? There’s just supposed to be one. Who was that last one? Were they the one who erased everything else?_ There was one thing, however, that Logan knew for sure.

It was dangerous to write anything else.

He didn’t know the others’ situations, and he would have to do lots and lots of research tonight, but he knew that it was dangerous to at least one of his soulmates to write anywhere noticeable. So, on this bus ride home, ignoring the paper being thrown around and the bus driver yelling at the rowdy kids, he constructed a plan.

When he got home, he would write on his stomach. Something along the lines of _Hello, since it seems there are four of us, this is rather abnormal. I am doing research. For now, we should give out names or at the least aliases._

_No, Logan, that’s too advanced,_ he scolds himself. He’s talking about 6 year olds and a 7 year old, most likely! Logan starts thinking again. _Hi, it’s me again. There are 4 of us. This is not normal... I think. I’m going to look up things and see what’s going on. For now we should share names or at least nicknames._

Logan nods to himself. Good. The bus stops, and Logan grabs his backpack. His stop. He stuffs his book back in. Zipping up the top, he slides out of the seat and off the bus. Time to execute his plan, he supposes.

  
-

Kathleen smiles nervously as she steps into her house. But this isn’t a story about three boys and a girl. This is a story about four boys; Virgil Strider, Logan Burke, Roman Prince, and Patton Little. This is the introduction of our very own Patton Little. Let’s try this again.

Patton smiles nervously as he steps into his house. He slips off his velcro sneakers, his mother already putting her shoes back in her and her husband’s bedroom. Stelio Little is at work right now, but Rose Little isn’t working today. 

Patton smiles as he touches his left wrist again. Yesterday was his birthday, and he had been working up the courage to try to contact his soulmate. But little did he know, there were three of them! He sets his backpack on the couch, pulling his hair up into a tight ponytail with one of the many hairbands on his wrists.

“Hey.. mom?”

“What’s up, sweetheart?” his mother calls from the kitchen, ever patient. 

“I wrote on my wrist today!” his tone is overly cheerful without him even meaning to. He can hear the smile in his mother’s voice as she replies.

“Oh, that’s great, honey! Did he write back?” The way that she says it feels… wrong. Patton already knows that being a girl feels weird, and that he doesn’t think it’s right. When he says this to his friends at school, who are mostly boys, they just laugh at say that he’s a total tomboy and just one of the guys. When they say he’s one of the guys, it makes him smile. He already has them call him “Pat” as a nickname, since he pats their shoulders so much. It feels great. But whenever his mom insinuates that he’ll have a male soulmate… it doesn’t feel wrong, either. Patton doesn’t understand what’s going on with him but he’ll roll with it.

“Actually, uh… all three of them did.”

He feels his mother freeze.

She quickly walks into the living room and takes his wrist. When there’s nothing on it, she looks up to him for an explanation. “One of them erased it, I don’t know who,” he provides.

She nods. Then she looks him straight in the eye. “Don’t tell anyone about this. Not even dad. Not even Samantha. Okay?” Patton nods. “There are many people who don’t like people like you, without soulmates. I don’t know how your father will react, so I’ll tell him. Okay? Pinkie promise me,” she holds out her pinkie, knowing that Patton will keep a pinkie promise secret. Patton lifts up his pinkie, locking them together. He nods. Then his mother stands up and turns away, pretending nothing happened.

Patton pretends nothing happened, even when him and his mother go pick up his big sister, who feels like a boy just like Patton does, from play rehearsal. Even when he is reading The Giving Tree. Even when he eats dinner. He stops pretending when he’s all by himself in his room, and he feels something on his stomach. After making sure the door is locked, he pulls up his shirt, looking. It’s the dark blue pen again.

_Hello. I have done some research. It is rare for there to be more than 2 people in a soulmate relationship, but not unheard of. I think we should share names or nicknames, so we have something to call us. I’ll go first. You can call me Lo._

A second later, purple marker starts writing.

_Alex and Jaymes say that they have a freind with 2 soulmates instead of one! Those are my moms by the way. i call them their names tho. im V!_

V draws a little flower with a heart in the middle next to their name. Patton picks up his multi-colored pen, choosing the light blue he did earlier today.

_im Pat. This sounds wierd but I’m suposed to be a girl but i dont think im a girl. im sorry that sounds wierd._

Patton bites his lip, regretting saying that. He starts to move to go to the bathroom and clean it off, hoping nobody saw, but then he feels more writing. It’s Lo.

_That’s not too peculiar (that means weird). You may just be a tomboy?_

V writes underneath that. 

_Alex’s friend is trans, that means he was born a girl but now hes a boy_

Patton reads that sentence about three times. He decides to write a little exclamation mark underneath that, to show that he did read it. He’s not sure what to say to it. Lo doesn’t say anything.

After that, there is no more space on his stomach. He moves to his thigh.

_Does any one now where Red is?_

Red starts writing, just on time.

_im here! and dad says liking boys is wrong but i like boys so i dont know what that means. also im Ro_

Lo writes again, on the other thigh.

_Yes, being gay can be frowned upon. My father is the same._

Ro is writing, under that.

_hey can we not write below the knees and elbows? i cant have all the writing be seen_

V writes back, a small purple checkmark next to that statement. Patton adds a rounded, bubbly lettered checkmark. Logan adds a quick, sharp one as well. Patton looks over to his left shoulder, feeling a tingle of writing. It’s Ro.

_its 8 which means bedtime. good night every one!_

_Goodnight, Ro._ It’s Lo.

_night!_ V draws a cute little heart and fills it in with their purple marker.

_night night sleep tite!_ Patton also draws a little heart. Ro fills it in with his red. Lo crosses out Patton’s “tite” and writes _tight*_ underneath it. Patton smiles, giggling at it.

  
-

Roman falls asleep, tucked into his blankets, ignoring the yelling of his drunk father watching TV. He should go to bed soon, then Roman will be able to fall asleep. For now, he thinks about his soulmates, and how pretty they must be, boy or girl regardless.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for: parental fighting, divorce, parental physical abuse (Todoroki style aka. with boiling water) from fathers, religious themes for just a bit (during the Todoroki Abuse), f slur, homophobia, transphobia
> 
> (let me know if you need any other warnings!)
> 
> And, as always, thank you to Jaymes for beta reading!

****

About a year later, Mrs. and Mr. Little have their first fight. Patton can’t hear too much from his room, but he hears angry conversation and every now and then a bit of yelling. It ends with the front door slamming shut and Patton’s mom coming into his room. She hugs him silently, her body tucked around his.

After a minute or so, she pulls away from him. “Your father is going to be gone for maybe a day or two. It will be fine, you don’t have to worry, we’re just taking a few days break. Don’t worry.”

Patton nods, already worrying. As she leaves, he writes a message on his stomach informing the others of what happened. He apologizes if he is a bit more inactive than usual.

Lo replies, telling him it’s okay. Ro draws a little heart, and V draws a smaller heart nearby. Patton smiles.

****  
-  


“C’mon, sport! Put your back into it!” Roman’s dad yells from the sidelines as he pushes against another boy. The other boy is taller and stronger, and manages to push Roman off his feet, effectively tackling him. “Jason, fantastic job! Roman, get over here!”

Roman sighs, taking the hand Jason offers him. Jason gives him a pat on the shoulder and a look that says  _ better luck next time. _ The thing is, Roman doesn’t  _ want _ a next time! He wants to be in the school play his big brother, Remus, is in! He knows how Coach feels about Remus being an actor, though. Behind his back, he calls him a fag and a pansy. If playing football like Coach wants him to lets Roman escape from the name calling, he’ll do it.

Roman takes off his helmet as he approaches his father, swallowing his fear. His father puts his hand on Roman’s shoulder. “You gotta focus more, champ. Your head isn’t in the game.” Roman nods, grateful his father didn’t outright yell at him. He puts his helmet back on, and steps back on the field. Taking a deep breath, he runs at the kid in front of him, who is doing the same.

****  
-  


It was two years later when Patton wrote a message on his lower leg. It was mid December, and everyone had agreed to spreading out where they wrote their messages. It his favorite light blue pen, he wrote  _ Hey guys.  _ Underneath that, _ me, mom, and Dee are moving.  _ He’s told his friends about his sis- brother. Brother.

Two days ago, Patton’s mom broke the news to the two. They all knew the reason was because Dimitri told everyone to call him Dimitri and ‘he’ instead of Samantha and ‘she’. When he told everyone at the dinner table the night before, their father was very quiet. Patton had gasped, excitedly questioning if that was really a thing and expressing that he felt the exact same. 

That night Dimitri screamed almost as loud as their dad did, screaming because Stelio poured boiling water on his face, telling him that “she was going to hell for her sins”. After their mom drove them to the emergency room, not trusting Stelio alone with Patton, she made up a story about Dimitri trying to make some tea and tripping. When they came back home at sometime much too early in the morning, Stelio and most of his belongings and car were nowhere to be seen.

Their mother called some agency the next morning, wanting to get her kids out of the house that felt so unsafe. She had been in contact with the police the night before, as well. Patton heard everything as he and Dimitri stayed up, the pain too much even with painkillers. Secretly, they all knew it would scar. Patton didn’t care. Dimitri was his brother, and he would do anything for him.

The next few days were a blur. Schools were called, arrangements were made. Mrs. Little got a new job somewhere in south Washington, and the boys were exchanged to a school that is accepting of their identities.

A week later, everything was practically back to normal, except Patton had lengthened his childhood nickname and Dimitri couldn’t go back to school just yet, as he was still recovering. Their mother took another job, as she had to support the two on her own. Things were looking up after that devastating night.

****  
-  


Logan drops his fork as his older brother, Remy, starts screaming. He covers the left side of his face with his hands, screaming in what Logan assumes is pain. Their parents stand up, rushing to help him. Logan covers his ears at the horrid sound his brother lets out. Through his parents’ forms he can see what looks to be some sort of scarring forming on his brother’s face. Logan has researched soulmates extensively, and knows that when one soulmate gets a scar, the other, or others, get the same scar. However, it tends to heal much quicker and hurt far less. Judging by the scar Remy’s soulmate must be getting right now, his version of the wound should heal and go away within a few years.

After a trip to the emergency room to confirm that all is okay, Logan can hear Remy stay up until at least 1 am, sniffling and most likely talking to his soulmate.

****  
-  


The next four years Patton spends in middle school were horrid. No matter how accepting the school looked, he was still bullied for who he is. Dimitri got the worse end of it, but they stuck together. They made friends and mostly had the same friend group, of a boy named Thomas and people named Joan and Talyn. When Thomas and Dimitri graduated middle school and moved up to highschool, the three younger friends had to fend for themselves. Technically, Patton should have been graduating with Thomas and Dimitri would have been a year older, but because of complications, they were knocked down a year.

The day that Patton graduated into highschool was a fantastic one. They had a party at Talyn’s house, the older boys congratulating them and lamenting about how difficult highschool would be.

It all came crashing down the day they were informed they had to move to another town. Somewhere farther up north, because apparently their mother had a new job opportunity that would improve their lives. That was the summer Patton got a phone, so he could keep in touch with his old friends. It was also the summer he would meet one of his soulmates, even if he didn’t know it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my main blog on Tumblr @marionetteartist or my Sanders Sides blog, @nb-virgil


	3. discontinuing

hey guys!

this is just a quick thing to let y'all know that I'm discontinuing this story.

my beta reader and now ex-qpp wasn't quite the best, so now unfortunately one of Thomas's characters has become a huge trigger.

maybe one day I'll be able to finish this, but not now.

Thank you all for understanding, and I hope you all have a good day!


End file.
